Knitting machine apparatus for producing tubular fabric without a helical bias



Oct. 14, 1969 f R, SHAW ET AL KNITTING MACHINE APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING TUBULAR I FABRIC WITHOUT A HELICAL BIAS 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Jan. 26, 1968 all kwil. Af. r. l lau f.

WITNESS /f/m,

Oct. 14, 1969 R, SHAW ETAL 3,472,048

KNITTING MACHINE APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING TUBULAR FABRIC WITHOUT A HELICAL BIAS Flled Jan 26, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ronald Shaw Th mas J. Thore (D BY ATTORNEY! WITNESS'l MMM' @mty 48 United States Patent O KNITTING MACHINE APPARATUS FOR PRODUC- ING TUBULAR FABRIC WITHOUT A HELICAL BIAS Ronald Shaw, King, N.C., and Thomas J. Thore, Chattanooga, Tenn., assignors to The Singer Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Jan. 26, 1968, Ser. No. 700,785

Int. Cl. D04b 27/ 34 U.S. Cl. 66--147 15 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The present invention relates to multifeed, circular, independent needle knitting machines, and in particular to improvements thereto which serve to remove the helical bias that is common to the tubular fabric thereof.

Description of the prior art It is well known that, since the various feeds of a multifeed circular knitting machine serve to produce respective courses of tubular knit fabric, a helical bias is eifected in such fabric. Such helical bias is especially pronounced in striped tubular fabric and, in order to form such fabric into garments, clearly its helical disposition of stripes must be removed. In the usual cutting and sewing operations performed during the manufacture of striped articles of wear, the stripes which appear in the front of the article must meet in registry with the stripes that appear at the rear of the article, for otherwise the article in question would be virtually unsaleable. To assure stripe registry in tubular knit cloth, present practice is to make avail of apparatus such as is shown and described in U.S. Patents Nos. 2,467,281 and 2,737,700. These apparatuses are designed to take a tubular bolt of cloth and to convey same through a slitting-stripe registering-sewing process, whereby the helical bias of such cloth may be removed. These prior art apparatuses, through quite satisfactory in performance, are-aside from being rather costly-substantial in size, requiring considerable plant space, and an operator therefor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention completely obviates the need for apparatuses as disclosed in the above mentioned U.S. Patents Nos. 2,467,281 and 2,737,700, in that bolts of tubular knit cloth may now be taken directly off of knitting machine, and in that such bolts of cloth will not have helical dispositions or biases. Generally, the invention provides, in a circular knitting machine, for means for slitting the just-knit tubular fabric walewise thereof prior to its takeup. In its presently preferred form such slitting means is in the nature of a pair of scissors, operation of which is derived from the knitting machine. The justslit fabric, especially apparent in the blatant case of striped cloth, has a leading edge and a trailing edge, a given course beginning at the leading edge and ending, walewise later, at the trailing edge. It is the concept of Patented Oct. 14, 1969 the invention to provide a relative shift between the leading and trailing fabric edges, whereby such edges may be brought into registry while such fabric is still on the knitting machine. In its presently preferred form, a fabric lag is so built into the knitting machine in question that the leading face of the slit fabric is caused to move through an extended path compared with that of the trailing face; and to this end linearly and angularly adjustable pin rollers with helically disposed pins, i.e. temple rollers, have proved quite successful for providing the necessary lag and for laterally shifting the fabric edges. The slit fabric, the edges of which have been laterally and longitudinally shifted into registry, is then fed so that such edges are brought beneath the presser foot of a sewing machine, preferably of the chain stitch type, whereby they may be sewn together to reform the fabric into tubular cloth as is handy for the above referred fabrication of garments. In its preferred form, the sewing machine is equipped to trim the registered edges of fabric prior to the sewing operation, whereby the line of stitches will always be neatly a discrete distance in from the rejoined edges. The sewing machine is driven by means of the knitting machine drive through a slip clutch, i.e. one allowing independent operation of the sewing machine without need to operate simultaneously the knitting machine, and in this way the initial adjustment of the temple rollers to establish the necessary fabric lag for registration may be facilitated. The fabric, as it feeds through the sewing machine, is then taken up in the usual manner, however, without the undesired helical bias thereto.

A principle objects of the invention is to provide improved circular knitting machine apparatus.

Another object of the invention is to provide a multifeed knitting machine apparatus for producing tubular knit fabric without a helical bias therein.

Another object of the invention is to provide circular shifting the slit edges thereof into registration, and for lar fabric produced by said apparatus, for relatively shifting the slit edges thereof into registration, and for rejoining said shifted edges to reform said tubular fabric.

Another object of the invention is to provide circular knitting machine apparatus adapted for slitting the tubular fabric produced by said apparatus, for relatively shifting the slit edges thereof into registration, and for rejoining said shifted edges to reform said tubular fabric by means of a sewing machine equipped with a fabric trimmer.

Another object of the invention is to provide circular knitting machine apparatus adapted for slitting the tubular fabric produced by said apparatus along a Wale, or wales, defined in cooperation with the fabric spreader for the takeup of said circular knitting machine apparatus.

The invention will be described with reference to the figures wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective View illustrating a circular knitting machine incorporating the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the manner in which tubular fabric is slit walewise in accordance with a presently preferred form of the invention, and

FIG.I 3 is a perspective view illustrating the way in which the edges of slit, helically disposed fabric may be shifted into registry, and reformed into tubular form by means of a sewing operation.

Referring then to the figures, just enough of a knitting machine 10 embodying the invention is indicated as is necessary for an understanding of the invention. The machine shown in FIG. 1 is known to the knitting trade as the Ml machine, being a rotary multifeed jersey machine that, for example, has been set up with groupings of successive yarn feeds that knit with respective kinds of yarns, whereby tubular fabric 12 having a helical disposition thereto, say of stripes, is produced. The knitting machine has conventional fabric takeup apparatus employing support arms 14 that secure to and are rotatable with the cylinder of such machine. The takeup support arms 14, which angularly extend outwardly from the axis of the machine, in turn, secure to respective vertically disposed legs 16. Situated below the takeup apparatus and secured to leg spokes 18 in stationary relationship to the cylinder of the machine is a gear 20, a rotary cover 22 being provided therefor through which a shaft 24 extends, via an opening therein, not specically indicated. The shaft 24 is provided, at its end near the machine axis, with a gear 26 fixed thereto, which gear Ais adapted to mesh with the gear and at its other end, the shaft 24 is supported for rotation in, but extends through, the leg 16. As the cylinder of the machine rotates, carrying with it the takeup apparatus, the gear 26 walks about the stationary gear 20, causing the shaft 24 to rotate.

A gear 28 is held fast on the part of the shaft 24 that extends through the leg 16, being coupled by means of a chain link 30 to drive a shaft 32--rotatably supported in the leg 16-which serves as the main drive for the fabric takeup. The takeup, it is to be appreciated, need take no special form in order to practice the invention, and for greater detail of takeup apparatus of the type indicated in FIG. 1, reference should be had to U.S. Patent No. 3,222,889, issued Dec. 14, 1965 and assigned to the instant assignee.

The takeup main drive shaft 32 operates to roll up the fabric 12 into a bolt 36, such shaft 32 having secured thereto a pulley 34 that couples by means of a belt 38 to operate a pulley-and-gear drive for rotating the fabric feed rollers 42 in the manner indicated in U.S. Patent No. 3,222,889.

The takeup leg 16 is formed with a rigid flat support 44, having an aperture 45, such support 44 having secured thereto a rigid face member 46. A sewing machine, indicated generally at 48, is secured to the face member 46, and is threaded by means of thread 47. The sewing machine 48 is of conventional chain stitch design, and may take a variety of forms, e.g. a machine known as the 240K12 machine, manufactured by the instant assignee, has already been employed in one embodiment of the present invention.

As the fabric 12 is knit by the knitting machine of FIG. 1, such fabric, as is conventional, is stretched over spreader arms, shown generally in dotted lines 50, that suspend from the needle cylinder and are rotatable therewith, the knitted fabric 12 passing over the spreader arms 50 as such fabric passes from the needle cylinder to the bolt 36. Extending in closer toward the center of the axis of the machine 1G, and at a more acute angle, than the fabric in its vicinity, is one blade S2 of a pair of scissors, such blade serving as an additional guide for the fabric which exits from the spreader arm 50. Such orientation of the blade 52 is to assure against snagging the knitted fabric, and from passing into whatever cloth holes are formed during knitting, say as a result of a press off. The blade 52 xedly secures to the face member 46 at a shoulder thereof, and cooperates with a movable blade 56 that is truncated for reasons of safety. The movable blade 56 couples to a rocker arm 58 that pivotally mounts to the face member 46 at a pivot 60, being generally U- shaped and operated in a manner which will be described presently.

Operation of the sewing machine 48, and of the scissor blade 56, is derived from a shaft 66 that is rotated via a belt 64 driven by means of a pulley 63 supported for rotation with the pulley 34. The sewing machine drive shaft 66, which extends through the aperture 45 in the fiat support 44, xedly supports a pulley 68 and an eccentric 70. Rotation of the shaft 66 causes a second eccentric 72 to position its strap 74 so as to rock a needle bar drive arm 76 to operate the needle bar 78 of the sewing machine. Other reciprocatory motions as are necessary for the operation of a presser bar 80 and its presser foot 82; and of a reciprocatory fabric trimmer knife 84, and its knife holder 86, about a pivotal axis 88 are provided by means of mechanisms and techniques which are well known to those in the sewing machine art.

To assure that the sewing machine drive shaft may be turned over independently of the operation of the knitting machine 10, whereby for example the sewing machine needle may be removed from the knitted fabric 12 to permit setup and other adjustment procedures, the pulley 63 is mounted on the shaft 32 by means of a sprag 199. Thus, when the shaft 32 turns, the pulley 63 is rotated, in the direction of the arrow indicated on such pulley, to operate the sewing machine 48; however, by grabbing the belt 64, and by turning same in the direction of the arrow on the belt, the shaft 32 remains stationery, and only the sewing machine drive shaft 66 is rotated.

Pivotally secured to the at support 44, at a point 89 is a rocker arm 90 that is adapted .to ride atop the peripheral edge ofthe eccentric 70. The rocker arm 90 has a link 92 pivotally secured thereto, which in turn, pivotally connects to the rocker arm 58 to operate the truncated scissor blade 56. As the arm 90 is periodically lifted, the scissor blade rocker arm 58 is pivoted about its pivot 60 in bell-crank fashion, thereby to cut the fabric that is guided along the scissor blade 52, producing what will hereinafter be referred to as the leading fabric edge 53, and a trailing fabric edge S5.

A roller support plate 94 secures to the takeup support arms 14 by means of screws 96, and such plate 94 lixedly mounts rollers 98, 100. The rollers 98, which are 4 inch long temple rollers, are freely rotatable about their longitudinal axis, and are provided with systems of helically arranged pins that are pointed in the directions of their respective helices. These rollers 98, 100 are driven by the outside face of the fabric 12 proximate the leading fabric edge 53, and serve to shift such fabric edge toward the takeup leg 16. Similarly, a temple roller 102, xedly mounted to the face member 46, is driven by the outside face of the fabric 12 proximate the trailing fabric edge 55, and such roller 102 serves to shift the trailing fabric edge 55 toward the takeup leg 16.

Linearly and angularly positional temple rollers 106 are designed respectively to vary the lag that may be provided to the leading fabric edge 53, and to vary the lateral shift that may be imparted to the fabric edge 53 to -move same relative to the fabric edge 55. To these ends the rollers 106 secure by means of a screw 10S-andflange 110 combination to a keyed shaft 112. The key 114 of the shaft 112 is accommodated in a keyway cutout 116 in a guide disc 117 that is secured to the support plate 94 by means of screws 118. The screws 118 extend through arcuate adjustment apertures 120, and the guide disc 117 covers an aperture 122 in the plate 94, the aperture 122 being suicient to permit rotation of the shaft 112 therein. The keyed shaft 112 is biased in the direction of the face member 46 by means of a spring 124, and abuts against one end of a threaded adjustment shaft 126. The threaded shaft 126 resides in a threaded collar 128 secured to the face member 46; and such adjustment shaft is provided with a turn knob 130. Since the temple rollers 106 operate on the inside face of the leading fabric edge 53, whereas the temple rollers 98 and 10()` operate on the outside face of such edge 53, their respective helices are oppositely disposed, as shown.

In order to vary the amount of lag that is introduced to the leading fabric edge 53, thereby to remove the spiral bias of the fabric 12, the turn knob 130 is adjusted as required. This causes the rollers 106 to move parallel to the axis of the keyed shaft 112, and causes the path through which the leading fabric edge 53 moves to vary accordingly. With the extended path so set that the leading (53) and trailing (55) edges are brought into registry as they feed under the roller 100, the ends, for example, of a given stripe in such fabric 12 are caused to overlay each other.

To assure that both the leading and trailing fabric edges 53, 55 are equally laterally shifted so that they both pass simultaneously under the presser foot 82 of the sewing machine 4S, the rollers 106 may be adjusta'bly skewed relative to the direction of fabric feed. By loosening the screws 118, and by cocking the rollers 106 at some certain angle (thereafter tightening the screws 118), more or less bite may be taken of the fabric leading edge 53 by the helically arranged pins of the rollers 106, whereby more or less lateral shift may `be imparted to such leading edge.

Just prior to the actual sewing together of the edges 53, 55, by the sewing machine 48, to reform the fabric into tubular form for processing into garments, the reciprocating knife 84-in well known manner-removes a small portion of fabric to assure that the line of sewn stitches 152 is a precise distance in from the edge of the reformed tubular fabric.

A roller 154, supported for rotation on au axle 156 to which a pulley 158 iixedly mounts, is adapted to take up the trim waste 150 that is found at the sewing machine 48, and such roller 154 is driven in unison with the knitting machine by means of the pulley belt 64.

While the invention has been described in its preferred form, it is to be understood that the words which have been used are words of description rather than of limitation, and that changes within the purview of the appended claims may be made without departing from the true scope and spirit of the invention. For example, while a machine with a rotary takeup has been indicated, such is by no means a requirement of the invention, the invention being, in its broadest sense, directed really to the concept in a circular knitting machine, of slitting the tubular knit fabric thereof, then relatively shifting the edges of such slit fabric to remove whatever helical bias is in such fabric, and then rejoining such edges by some suitable means, such procedures being all performed prior to removal of such fabric from the circular knitting machine.

Having thus set forth the nature of this invention, what is claimed herein is:

1. A knitting apparatus comprising:

(a) a multifeed knitting head for producing tubular fabric,

(b) means adapted to receive said tubular fabric for slitting said fabric lengthwise thereof,

(c) means adapted to receive said slit fabric for use in shifting the edges thereof relative to each other lengthwise of said fabric,

(d) means adapted to receive said slit fabric, the edges of which are shifted, and to join said fabric edges, thereby to reform said fabric into tubular form, and

(e) takeup means adapted to receive said reformed tubular fabric for keeping said fabric under tension from said knitting head to said takeup means.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 including means for laterally shifting the edges of said slit fabric relative to each other, whereby said edges may be brought into overlaying alignment.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means for shifting the edges of said slit fabric is means disposed between said edges, said means being adapted for extending the path through which one of said edges moves relative to the path through which said other edge moves.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said means for relatively shifting the edges of said slit fabric is a pin roller over which one of said edges moves, said pin roller having pins so helically disposed thereon as to cause the edge in contact therewith to move radially away from the axis of said knitting apparatus.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said pin roller is adapted for angular orientation relative to the direction of fabric feed, said apparatus including means for moving said pin roller in a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the face of the fabric passing over said pin roller.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 whereinsaid knitting apparatus includes means for spreading said fabric, said means being situated at a point of said apparatus that is prior to said means for slitting said fabric in the direction of fabric feed, and wherein said means for slitting said fabric includes at least one member that is extended sufficiently close to the axis of said knitting apparatus that fabric issuing off said fabric spreading means may be drawn along said extended member.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said extended member is formed with one blade of a pair of scissors, and wherein said pair of scissors is adapted for operation in conjunction with the operation yof said knitting apparatus.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means adapted to join the edges of said slit fabric is a sewing machine coupled to said takeup means.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said sewing machine is of the chain stitch type, wherein said knitting apparatus includes slip clutch means, and wherein the drive of said sewing machine is coupled to and operated in conjunction with the operation of said knitting apparatus through said slip clutch means, whereby the drive of said sewing machine may be turned over independently of the operation of said knitting apparatus.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said sewing machine is of the type including a fabric trimmer disposed prior to the presser foot of said sewing machine in the direction of fabric feed, and wherein said knitting apparatus mounts means for taking up the trimmings formed by said sewing machine trimmer.

11. In a circular knitting machine apparatus for producing tubular fabric, which knitting machine apparatus includes a circular needle bed and fabric takeup apparatus, the improvement thereto which includes:

(a) slitting means, disposed between said needle bed and said takeup apparatus, for slitting said fabric walewise to produce first and second edges thereof, whereby each course of said fabric has a leading wale adjacent to its said first edge and a trailing wale adjacent to its said second edge,

(b) shifting means, disposed between said slitting means and said takeup apparatus, for use in shifting the edges of said fabric so that said leading and trailing wales may be brought coursewise into registry, and

(c) joining means, disposed between said shifting means and said takeup apparatus, for joining said first and second fabric edges together,

whereby the fabric which is ultimately taken up will be in tubular form, but without helically disposed courses therein.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said shifting means is disposed between said first and second fabric edges, and wherein said shifting means is positionable substantially perpendicularly to and against the face of said fabric proximate the said rst edge of said fabric.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said shifting means is further adapted for relatively shifting said fabric edges walewise into overlaying registry.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said joining means is a sewing machine coupled to said takeup apparatus.

15. Apparatus for use between the needle bed and takeup of a knitting machine comprising:

(a) means adapted to receive the tubular fabric that is knit by said machine to slit said fabric,

(b) means adapted to receive said slit fabric for use in shifting the edges thereof relative to each other lengthwise of said fabric, and

(c) means adapted to receive said slit fabric, the edges of which are shifted, to join said fabric edges, thereby to reform said fabric into tubular form, and to pass said reformed tubular fabric to said takeup.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8 2,737,700 3/1956 Thompson 26-1 XR 3,430,589 3/1969 Andrault 112--63 XR FOREIGN PATENTS 865,092 4/ 1961 Great Britain.

Folsom 66-147 Firsching 112 262 WM. CARTER REYNOLDS, Prlmary Exammer Wildman 66-147 Williams. U.S. C1. X.R.

Walter et al. 26--1 10 26-1, 55; 66-151; 112--63 (gg UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,472,048 Dated October 14, 1969 Inventor(s) Ronald Shaw and Thomas J. Thore It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 2, line 38 delete "shifting the slit edges thereof into registration, and for"; line 38 insert knitting machine apparstus adapted for slitting the tubu GAED ANU SEALED FEB l 71970 (SEAL) Auen:

Edward M. Fletcher, Ir. WILLIAM E SGWYLER JR Attestny Ufficer Commissioner of Patents 

